I figure I should probably round up the reviews, and hey, I'm actually excited for this one. Megaman 5? Probably my favorite out of the classic games!
I'll do the format I did for the other NES Megaman titles.
Star Man Stage: Starting off strong, Star Man's stage is gorgeous (for the NES at least) and actually gives you a fun low-gravity excuse that isn't water. The enemy placement is actually pretty solid, and the platforming is pretty fun, even if the spikes can make it a bit punishing (but if you're playing 5, you should already have mastered low-gravity spike platforming honestly). Star Man's fight is pretty fun, you have a lot of room to maneuver and the pattern's not hard to get down.
Gravity Man Stage: A really wild stage concept with a fun gimmick, this one's a blast. If you enjoyed that one weird Run n' Gun section of Cuphead with the inverted gravity, you'll probably like this. The fact that the enemies are designed with the stage's gimmick in mind and interact with it meaningfully is also fantastic. You'll see the little dropper enemy and think: "What's this?" only to see the gravity change and go "Oh, I see!". It's kind of silly to be impressed by this stuff nowadays, but I really didn't expect to see something as novel as a gravity switch mechanic in an NES game. Just goes to show how much Capcom was innovating on the NES! Gravity Man's boss fight is also a ton of fun, especially if you're timing it with Star Crash and you slap him in the middle of the gravity flip. This fight is a blast, and it gives you a pretty damn busted weapon with Gravity Hold too.
Gyro Man Stage: Visions of Air Man,,,,, but it's actually a lot more fun! The elevators are a great setpiece for the stage in general, and the enemies feel fair to fight, even with all the platforming. Gyro Man's fight is a little eh, but he goes down really fast if you have Gravity Hold so there's not much to complain about there.
Crystal Man Stage: Super interesting design that reminds me of a better-looking Top Man stage. There's a ton of verticality which really adds to the "delving into a cave" theme the stage has going on. As for Crystal Man himself, his attack is a little hard to dodge but thankfully the damage they deal is pretty reasonable, so it's not bad at all.
Napalm Man Stage: Napalm Man as a concept is fucking hilarious. What the hell was Light smoking when he made this guy? Well, anyways. Stage is incredibly unsubtle about the fact it parodies Vietnam, but hey, it looks pretty damn good for 8-bit. The tiger enemies are a good test for your reflexes, and none of the other enemies are really bad to deal with aside from maybe the missile guys and the helicopter joes? As for Napalm Man himself, he's a little bit tricky but not hard to deal with once you get him down.
On a sidenote, I find it funny that Napalm Man and Air Man have a similar body type. Maybe they're brothers? And on the topic of sidenotes, the boss theme in this game sounds kind of silly, but it really grew on me.
Stone Man Stage: Bats and Mets that explode,,,,, really iffy enemy selection. This stage is kind of unmemorable sadly, I don't have a lot to say about it. At least Stone Man is a decent enough fight.
Charge Man Stage: Awesome stage design, love how you go on the train, into the train, back out again, then back in. I think it's a little short, but the stage concept is awesome and it's a damn good stage in the short length it had. I struggled a little bit on Charge Man because Power Stone is miserable to aim, but eventually I realized it's just better to use the Buster and I beat him the first try after I realized that. Whoops.
Dive Man Stage: It's an interesting stage, I'll give it that. You'd expect another uninspired water level, but thankfully they didn't and they decided to give us a unique ship level with the main highlight being the Rush Marine section. I wasn't a terribly big fan of this section because you couldn't really use the powers you'd been accruing over the course of the playthrough, but it was definitely a novel concept and I'm glad they decided to at least try to mix it up. Unfortunately, Dive Man is kind of a lame fight that's not too interesting if you try to do it honorably, so just Charge Kick the crap out of him and get it over with.
And onto the Proto Man Stages.
Proto Man Stage 1: It's surprisingly pink. The return of the kaizo blocks is kind of mitigated due to the fact Rush Jet exists. Dark Man I isn't anything to write home about, but he sure does exist.
Proto Man Stage 2: Some fun enemies return, but nothing terribly memorable happens in this stage. Dark Man II is A Boss That Exists, I guess.
Proto Man Stage 3: They bombard you with the helicopter Joes at the start for some reason, but the quick horizontal platforming section is cool. The snake block section is probably the most memorable part about the whole stage though; if you played Mario Maker 2, you probably have an idea of what I'm referring to. Anyway, Dark Man III freezes you and that's not really fun; but thankfully it's avoidable for the most part if you don't let yourself get cornered.
Proto Man Stage 4: Interesting beginning section where you have to destroy the support blocks and let the tower fall before you get to move on. I find it really cool that they made a whole fake Proto Man whistle only to have the REAL Proto Man come along. Dark Man IV finally feels like a proper fight, even if the rotating pillars are a little annoying.
And now we actually get to the final stages with Wily. But before we get to it, can I mention how awesome the Wily Stage theme sounds in this game? I mean, take a listen. Sounds awesome.
Wily Stage 1: Nice of them to give you a free E-Tank, which allows me to forgive them for having a semi-blind spike pit at the very start. The donut platforms and the trash presses give this stage a little bit of flavor. At the end of the trash press section, you probably want to grind on the chicken farm to refill your energy; it's very likely that the Proto Man stages left you kind of dry by now. The boss for this stage is none other than motherfucking Big Pets, the guy that the Glitch Gremlin tried to fuck up the AVGN with. Pretty simple fight honestly, but a ton of fun all the same. If you're going to hit it's weakness though, prepare to open and close the menu a ton.
Wily Stage 2: An underwater section; you'd think it would be strange for a Megaman game to not have one of these, so here it is. Boss for this stage is is the Circling Q9, and he's just ok. He has the decency to not outlast his welcome at the very least.
Wily Stage 3: Classic Robot Master rematches, you know the deal by now. You'll have to deal with the Wily Press at the end, but it's actually a pretty fun fight, just stick by the middle and jump across it when needed. Kind of like the Egg Scorcher in Sonic 1 but better designed if you think about it. Good boss overall, which is impressive for a boss this late into a Megaman game.
Wily Stage 4: You get a whopping 3 enemies to farm for any more energy you need before facing the Wily Machine 5. That said, you probably don't need to! It's a good old-fashioned slugfest where you have to avoid a couple of patterns he throws out at you, and then you're on to Wily Capsule.
I still think Wily Capsule in Megaman 4 is cooler, but it's still a damn cool and fun fight here.
Ending cutscene is pretty well made for the NES, and hearing the Proto Man whistle is always an "oh shit" moment I've come to enjoy.
Overall? My favorite Mega Man game, it's so much fun and it's an honest blast to play. Maybe I'll get Beat next time, who knows.
Colorblindness Rating: A+
All good here from a colorblindness perspective.
I'll do the format I did for the other NES Megaman titles.
Star Man Stage: Starting off strong, Star Man's stage is gorgeous (for the NES at least) and actually gives you a fun low-gravity excuse that isn't water. The enemy placement is actually pretty solid, and the platforming is pretty fun, even if the spikes can make it a bit punishing (but if you're playing 5, you should already have mastered low-gravity spike platforming honestly). Star Man's fight is pretty fun, you have a lot of room to maneuver and the pattern's not hard to get down.
Gravity Man Stage: A really wild stage concept with a fun gimmick, this one's a blast. If you enjoyed that one weird Run n' Gun section of Cuphead with the inverted gravity, you'll probably like this. The fact that the enemies are designed with the stage's gimmick in mind and interact with it meaningfully is also fantastic. You'll see the little dropper enemy and think: "What's this?" only to see the gravity change and go "Oh, I see!". It's kind of silly to be impressed by this stuff nowadays, but I really didn't expect to see something as novel as a gravity switch mechanic in an NES game. Just goes to show how much Capcom was innovating on the NES! Gravity Man's boss fight is also a ton of fun, especially if you're timing it with Star Crash and you slap him in the middle of the gravity flip. This fight is a blast, and it gives you a pretty damn busted weapon with Gravity Hold too.
Gyro Man Stage: Visions of Air Man,,,,, but it's actually a lot more fun! The elevators are a great setpiece for the stage in general, and the enemies feel fair to fight, even with all the platforming. Gyro Man's fight is a little eh, but he goes down really fast if you have Gravity Hold so there's not much to complain about there.
Crystal Man Stage: Super interesting design that reminds me of a better-looking Top Man stage. There's a ton of verticality which really adds to the "delving into a cave" theme the stage has going on. As for Crystal Man himself, his attack is a little hard to dodge but thankfully the damage they deal is pretty reasonable, so it's not bad at all.
Napalm Man Stage: Napalm Man as a concept is fucking hilarious. What the hell was Light smoking when he made this guy? Well, anyways. Stage is incredibly unsubtle about the fact it parodies Vietnam, but hey, it looks pretty damn good for 8-bit. The tiger enemies are a good test for your reflexes, and none of the other enemies are really bad to deal with aside from maybe the missile guys and the helicopter joes? As for Napalm Man himself, he's a little bit tricky but not hard to deal with once you get him down.
On a sidenote, I find it funny that Napalm Man and Air Man have a similar body type. Maybe they're brothers? And on the topic of sidenotes, the boss theme in this game sounds kind of silly, but it really grew on me.
Stone Man Stage: Bats and Mets that explode,,,,, really iffy enemy selection. This stage is kind of unmemorable sadly, I don't have a lot to say about it. At least Stone Man is a decent enough fight.
Charge Man Stage: Awesome stage design, love how you go on the train, into the train, back out again, then back in. I think it's a little short, but the stage concept is awesome and it's a damn good stage in the short length it had. I struggled a little bit on Charge Man because Power Stone is miserable to aim, but eventually I realized it's just better to use the Buster and I beat him the first try after I realized that. Whoops.
Dive Man Stage: It's an interesting stage, I'll give it that. You'd expect another uninspired water level, but thankfully they didn't and they decided to give us a unique ship level with the main highlight being the Rush Marine section. I wasn't a terribly big fan of this section because you couldn't really use the powers you'd been accruing over the course of the playthrough, but it was definitely a novel concept and I'm glad they decided to at least try to mix it up. Unfortunately, Dive Man is kind of a lame fight that's not too interesting if you try to do it honorably, so just Charge Kick the crap out of him and get it over with.
And onto the Proto Man Stages.
Proto Man Stage 1: It's surprisingly pink. The return of the kaizo blocks is kind of mitigated due to the fact Rush Jet exists. Dark Man I isn't anything to write home about, but he sure does exist.
Proto Man Stage 2: Some fun enemies return, but nothing terribly memorable happens in this stage. Dark Man II is A Boss That Exists, I guess.
Proto Man Stage 3: They bombard you with the helicopter Joes at the start for some reason, but the quick horizontal platforming section is cool. The snake block section is probably the most memorable part about the whole stage though; if you played Mario Maker 2, you probably have an idea of what I'm referring to. Anyway, Dark Man III freezes you and that's not really fun; but thankfully it's avoidable for the most part if you don't let yourself get cornered.
Proto Man Stage 4: Interesting beginning section where you have to destroy the support blocks and let the tower fall before you get to move on. I find it really cool that they made a whole fake Proto Man whistle only to have the REAL Proto Man come along. Dark Man IV finally feels like a proper fight, even if the rotating pillars are a little annoying.
And now we actually get to the final stages with Wily. But before we get to it, can I mention how awesome the Wily Stage theme sounds in this game? I mean, take a listen. Sounds awesome.
Wily Stage 1: Nice of them to give you a free E-Tank, which allows me to forgive them for having a semi-blind spike pit at the very start. The donut platforms and the trash presses give this stage a little bit of flavor. At the end of the trash press section, you probably want to grind on the chicken farm to refill your energy; it's very likely that the Proto Man stages left you kind of dry by now. The boss for this stage is none other than motherfucking Big Pets, the guy that the Glitch Gremlin tried to fuck up the AVGN with. Pretty simple fight honestly, but a ton of fun all the same. If you're going to hit it's weakness though, prepare to open and close the menu a ton.
Wily Stage 2: An underwater section; you'd think it would be strange for a Megaman game to not have one of these, so here it is. Boss for this stage is is the Circling Q9, and he's just ok. He has the decency to not outlast his welcome at the very least.
Wily Stage 3: Classic Robot Master rematches, you know the deal by now. You'll have to deal with the Wily Press at the end, but it's actually a pretty fun fight, just stick by the middle and jump across it when needed. Kind of like the Egg Scorcher in Sonic 1 but better designed if you think about it. Good boss overall, which is impressive for a boss this late into a Megaman game.
Wily Stage 4: You get a whopping 3 enemies to farm for any more energy you need before facing the Wily Machine 5. That said, you probably don't need to! It's a good old-fashioned slugfest where you have to avoid a couple of patterns he throws out at you, and then you're on to Wily Capsule.
I still think Wily Capsule in Megaman 4 is cooler, but it's still a damn cool and fun fight here.
Ending cutscene is pretty well made for the NES, and hearing the Proto Man whistle is always an "oh shit" moment I've come to enjoy.
Overall? My favorite Mega Man game, it's so much fun and it's an honest blast to play. Maybe I'll get Beat next time, who knows.
Colorblindness Rating: A+
All good here from a colorblindness perspective.
Yea
Gyro Mans my fave :)